another land to do the same work. The Pil- vain-glorious presumption that you have. grims were prepared by persecution and trained by Providence, to come here and make New England and America what it is. We were here when the war-whoop of the Native startled you at the midnight hour, and shared alike your danger and fears; we were here when you took up arms to sever the bonds which bound you to your mother (?) "This infusion of ideas must be caused by the men and women in whose minds those ideas are impersonated. An idea is a very country; and our blood was first spilled upon good thing, but we must have men who can live it out, and impress it upon society, before it can become the living thing it ought to be to influence society."-W. THE COLOURED RACE. Our ancestors came to this country by compulsion, they had no choice in the matter; had they been consulted probably we should to-day be enjoying the liberty of barbarism, happy in our ignorance of civilization and all its blessings. (?)—Have you, proud descendants of white barbarism, demonstrated that civilization is a blessing? Are the Indians better men to-day, than when your ancestors planted their infant colonies upon this soil? Are they more honest, more humane, more upright now, than then? The degraded beings you say we are, you are responsible for; for, had you pursued a different course towards us, we should have been a different class of people. You first robbed us of our liberty; and, to make your possession certain, stole from us the key of knowledge, drove us into the fields, and yoked us with your beasts of burden. We are here, forced here by your ancestors (ours too, for that matter), and here we intend to stay. You have no right to order us away, for we are as much native as any of you. You took the soil forcibly from its original possessors, sealing your bonds in their blood; our labor has developed your resources, our sweat watered your fields, our blood cemented the fabric of your institutions, our wrongs called down upon your heads the vengeance of an injured God. We have been here so long that we have not the remotest idea of leaving this land to go back to Africa, nor to the bogs and fins of Europe. The best blood of the land flows in our veins; for we have inherited from your fathers (our ancestors) the same blood, the same name, the same proud ambition, the same fond hope, the same ideas, the same the alter of liberty. We saw the birth of the Republic, and, though cheated of our inheritance, still lived with you and loved you: you made us the orphan child of the Republic, and forced us to endure toil and privation, heaped odium mountains high upon us, simply because we were weak and you were strong. We have marched along down the pathway of time with you, watching the growth of this mighty nation, this great Republic whose foundation was cemented by our blood as well as yours. We have been your friends against all foes: the wily Indians, the haughty British, the treacherous rebel, alike found us the friend of the American Government, and treated us with the same severity they treated you. We were with you in your infancy, in your youth; we are with you still, and still we shall be with you at the crack of doom.— Cincinnati Coloured Citizen. Correspondence. To the Editor of the "Freed-Man." Sir, I have good reason for believing that the government will do their part in the work of Jamaica's regeneration, and I doubt not the Committee of the Freed-Men's Aid Society will do theirs. I write now to make a suggestion which does not affect the action of either. Personal christian effort on behalf of the Freed-men of Jamaica is as much needed as money contributions. The settlement of men of large hearts and skilled hand and brain in the midst of the ignorant and easily led negroes of many parts of the island, would afford one of the best guarantees for the preservation of peace and order. A band of such, however small, would form a break-water in case of any fresh rising of the storms of human passion. Are there any medical men among the readers of your Magazine willing to go as lay missionaries (with the heroism, if not the pecuniary sacrifice of Dr. Lockhart of Chinese “While yielding up my heart in gratitude for the grace which has been vouchsafed to me, and which alone has sustained me under this grievous affliction, I leave Mr. Eyre and those who have aided him in his cruel proceedings in the hands of Him who judgeth righteously. fame) and help to form a nucleus around harmony with the sentiments he expressed in which such bands might gather? The out- his last letter to me and with the precepts of the cry for medical men in the island has been Divine Master whose faithful servant he was. loud for years, and no wonder! Manchioneal district, for instance, is destitute. Dr. Major, from the neighbourhood of Bath, visits the place occasionally; but thirty miles where there are no public conveyances cannot be traversed without considerable expense. The nearest practitioner on the other side, Dr. Clarke, lives (or did live) at Port Antonio, twenty-five miles off. Dr. Crowdy (who was located for some months at Golden Grove, about nine miles from Manchioneal) has left for England. Can no volunteers be found, think you? By all means, if you can, place me in communication with some medical men who are willing to emigrate and upon whom the mantle of the good Dr. Hodgkin has fallen. Yours, &c., ALFRED BOURNE. Brixton, May 18th, 1866. PROSECUTION OF EX-GOVERNOR EYRE. The Secretary of the Jamaica Committee has forwarded to us the following copies of letters which have been received from Mrs. Gordon by a member of the Committee: "Regent's Park, July 2, 1866. "My dear Sir,—The published resolutions of the Jamaica Committee, respecting a crimi. nal prosecution of Mr. Eyre, and Mr. C. Buxton's letter deprecating such a course, appear to me to require some notice from myself as the person most interested in this grave matter. I am very grateful to the kind friends who manifest such sincere sympathy for me in my deep affliction, and who seek to vindicate the memory of my dear husband. In any other circumstances I should desire to be guided by their counsel; but in the present case I solicit permission to give utterance to my own feelings, which I trust will not be disregarded. "I shrink from the step suggested. My martyred husband, shaping his course in public and in private life by his Christian profession, died, forgiving his enemies. My earnest desire is to follow his example; and I feel that in doing this I am only acting in "Begging you to make such use of this letter as you may judge best, I am, my dear sir, yours very sincerely. M. Gordon. "L. A. Chamerovzow, Esq.” "40, Avenue Road, July 14, 1866. "My dear Sir,-If my letter to you of the 2nd has placed the Jamaica Committee in any embarrassment, I shall regret the circumtance. My object in writing to you was to give my reasons for not becoming the prosecutor in this case, and I feel that to that resolution I must adhere. If, however, the Jamaica Committee consider it advisable, on the grounds of the public interests and public justice, and especially with reference to the future security of the black race, to take proceedings for the vindication of these great principles, so outraged by Mr. Eyre and his coadjutors, I do not see how I can in any way interfere. "As many of my friends are under the impression that I intend to prosecute Mr. Eyre, are pained that I should have such and thoughts, I think it desirable that this letter and my former one should be published. With every sentiment of gratitude, I am, my dear sir, yours very sincerely, M. GORDON. "L. A. Chamerovzow, Esq." Printed by ARLISS ANDREWS, of No. 7, Duke Street, Bloomsbury, W.C., in the Parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, in the County of Middlesex. THE FREED-MAN. JAMAICA. BY CHARLES PLUMMER, ESQ., OF ST. ELIZABETH, JAMAICA. JAMAICA is acknowledged to be a fine island: then the question naturally arises, why is she not prosperous as she was in times gone by? She was once called the "brightest jewel in the diadem of England." Wherefore has she lost her brilliancy? Why is she not still the queen of the Antilles? Why is she sinking day by day into nothingness? Time was when the Jamaica planters made immense fortunes and peopled Grosvenor-square; they bought majorities in the House of Commons, they trafficked in peerages, they played fantastic tricks until their glory departed. Now she is poor and beggarly. Is it because she is less beautiful or fertile? No! Celebrated as Italy is for its beautiful scenery, it cannot boast of that variety in detail and those grand features which are to be found in Jamaica. It is said, "Jamaica has scenes surpassing fable," and which cannot be denied by anyone who has been through the island. It exhibits a combination of scenery embracing the sublime, the romantic, the serene. The climate is also healthy; much misconception prevails in England as to its salubrity; what is known of the heat of the East Indies has been erroneously applied to the West. In Jamaica the range of the thermometer throughout the year is from 65° to 90° Fahr. in the hottest plains, while in the mountains, in proportion to elevation, of from 40° to 70°. The island has almost constantly the advantage of a sea breeze, which tempers the heat by day, and of the land wind, which refreshes by night. There are some of the mountain districts which are said to enjoy the healthiest climate in the world, and offer a welcome home to persons in whom, from hereditary or other causes, there exists a tendency to scrofulous disease and pulmonary consumption. The soil is generally deep and fertile, and in many instances this island exceeds all the others in vegetable riches. The population is of a mixed race, white and coloured: the coloured race preponderates and is the labouring class, the white the governing. The governing class, who are still infected with all the old notions and distinctions between master and slave, still expect the same subserviency and obedience from the freed-men as they did when the system of slavery prevailed; they still endeavour to exercise the selfsame domineering influence, and are chagrined and cut up where it is not generally accorded them; they refuse to ameliorate the condition of the mass, and in some instances disbelieve in the ability of the coloured race for improvement and cultivation. The reverend gentleman who lately described them as petted panthers once declared that he believed that the "negro had no soul;" yet this gentleman, who was sent to Jamaica to care for the souls of the coloured people, honestly receives his pay for doing that which he believes to be an impossibility. The planters generally are no friends of the people; they abuse the negro as stupid and ignorant and yet they discourage schools, for they would rather the children should labour on their plantations than that they should be sent to school to be taught the way in which they should go. A schoolmaster is an eyesore to many of our Jamaica nabobs. The courts of Petty Sessions can tell many a tale; disputes arise between the planters and the labourers; magistrates are the judges generally; they are nearly always planters, and the poor labourer finds but little justice. If the coloured man tries to improve his condition by dint of hard labour and economy, and lifts his head above his fellow labourers, he is put down at once as an ambitious negro and ought to be crushed. By the thoughtless remarks of a Custos a toll-gate was once broken down by the people, but no bloodshed followed that riot, because men in position connived at it. By the wrong doing of another Custos, supported by a weak Governor, a riot took place; the people are shot down, and when they retaliated civil law was suspended and martial law, with its thirty days' horrors and barbarities, was substituted. Had it not been for the timely and opportune protest of a portion of the English public, which promptly put a stop to the bloody career of Mr. ex-Governor Eyre and his subordinates, the island would have been depopulated, and every intelligent coloured man would have been destroyed who had the temerity to stand between the white tyrants and the oppressed blacks. The government avowed that sedition was rife throughout the island. The Custos of St. Elizabeth, a gentleman of authority and position in Jamaica, informed Mr. Eyre that his parish was disaffected; he sought for and got a vessel of war stationed at the Port of Black River. But while he was trembling from fear and quaking under the sting of an evil conscience, the people, instead of planning a wicked rebellion, were busily engaged in their usual quiet avocations, and were organizing a more sensible and legal affair in the shape of a co-operative association, and although Mr. Salmon tried his utmost to crush the scheme in the bud and to bring the coloured movers of it to the gallows, during the very height of martial law, by false accusations, yet, nothing daunted, the promoters established the association, the people took off their crops and have sent a sample cargo, along with a deputation of three of their representative men, to assure the British people that while they were wrongly accused of conspiracy they were legally pursuing a different course, to show by deeds, not words only, that they are a misrepresented and maligned people. A gallant colonel wrote Mr. Eyre, which letter was made evidence, that "he saw in the face of every negro he met the expression that he would cut every white man's throat;' and not many weeks after that letter was penned to Governor Eyre, that gallant and farseeing officer got stuck in the mud while travelling (with his family, I believe) and there was no help to be got but from those very negroes in whose face he saw "treason, stratagem and spoil," and who joyfully rescued him and his carriage from the dilemma he was in and sent him on his way rejoicing, That the bulk of the Jamaica people are prone to sedition or that they are of a rebellious nature I positively deny; they are a forgiving and a forbearing people. In a great many instances which came under the writer's observation during the height of martial law in Jamaica, the negroes volunteered their services to protect the lives and property of their terrified white employers. They have not sent a deputation to seek redress for injuries done; they do not cry out for vengeance on the heads of those who revelled in the blood of their friends and their race; they would rather leave vengeance to God, to whom it belongeth. They prefer, now that English people have taken so much interest in their welfare, to prove that they can and will labour, that they are ready to apply themselves to increased industry, to help themselves and their children and not to depend on the government to help them, a government that, if it was not oppressive, was either really and truly neglectful, or incapable. The bulk of the produce exported from Jamaica is raised by the small settlers; it is bought from them by the traders and others, who ship the same as if they were the growers and not the people. The trader gets rich by the labours of the working man, and does he spend his means among them? does he try to ameliorate their condition or to improve the island? No! he goes into another country and spends his money. Would England be better off than Jamaica to-day were every man to drain her of her wealth and take it to another country to spend it? The system is an exhaustive one, and that is one reason why Jamaica cannot prosper. Those in power and with means will not improve the island or the condition of the people, because they do not intend to make the island their home. The system of doing good appears to be this:-We support a good many churches, established and nonconformists, we pay the ministers to look after the people; it is their province, not ours. And I feel thankful to say that Jamaica can boast of some exemplary ministers of Christ, hardworking self-denying men, who practically follow the footsteps of their master, "going about and doing good;" but the greatest drawback to them is the evil influences of the upper class, who, by their mode of living and bad example, almost counteract the influence of the Gospel. The late legislators of Jamaica were always devising plans and schemes of torture and punishment. The aim of legislation was not preventive but punitive. They would readily grant thousands of pounds for prisons, while they |